When “Pretty Woman” was released 15 years ago, it instantly turned
Julia Roberts from a promising newcomer to a full-fledged movie
star—and she gives a full-fledged movie star performance here. It’s one
of her funniest and most beguiling roles, lit up like a rocket by her
incandescent, ten-million-dollar smile. It’s also a remarkably good
performance; she’s usually at her best in romantic comedies like this,
“My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Notting Hill” and the like. Her best work,
in “Erin Brockovich,” doesn’t fit the mold, but then Roberts herself,
like all true movie stars, doesn’t fit any mold: she made the mold.

And here she was greatly abetted by Richard Gere and director Garry
Marshall—they all teamed up again for the lesser but still entertaining
“Runaway Bride.” As Marshall points out in his funny, ingratiating
commentary track, until this film it was more common for Gere to play
someone who wanted to reach the social heights that he starts at in
“Pretty Woman.” Marshall adds that by the time the movie came out,
Gere’s star status had slipped a little; “Pretty Woman” restored it by
broadening the groups to which he appealed. Marshall says the studio
was flooded with fan mail for Gere from teenage girls. And no wonder:
here he’s one of the great dream targets—a handsome, charming,
immensely rich man who doesn’t know he needs someone to love.

At the time of the movie’s initial release, some griped that this story
of a Hollywood Boulevard hooker (Roberts, of course) who ends up with
this rich guy from the upper reaches of the class structure is a sheer
Hollywood fantasy. Well, yes, that’s exactly what it is—and the movie
announces itself as a Hollywood fantasy. In the opening scenes, one of
those guys who wanders about Hollywood shouting his philosophy to
passersby is seen as he cries out “Everyone comes to Hollywood got a
dream. What’s your dream?” And at the end we see him again as Roberts
and Gere get together on the fire escape of a seedy Hollywood hotel;
the street guy again announces that Hollywood is the province of
dreams. So the filmmakers—principally Marshall and screenwriter J.F.
Lawton—are announcing their artifice. You can’t then blame them for not
doing a realistic story.

And that’s fine. The story is very simple with only a cobweb of a plot;
it’s not here to tell us things, to improve our lives—it’s out to
entertain us, and for millions around the world, that’s exactly what it
did, and still does. Watched today the movie seems as fresh, warm and
sexy as it did fifteen years ago. (This DVD is the “15th Anniversary
Edition.”)

Gere is squillionaire Edward Lewis, in Los Angeles with his shark-like
attorney Philip Stuckey with the goal of taking over the aircraft
company of elderly James Morse (Ralph Bellamy). Edward has made himself
so rich by being one of those masters of corporate hostile takeovers.
The plan is to force Morse (say that three times) into selling his
company, then break it up and sell the pieces.

Edward is getting over a romance that failed; he knows why this keeps
happening to him, but he’s not yet interested in doing better. He
impulsively borrows Stuckey’s glitzy car and heads out into the streets
of Los Angeles, totally unfamiliar to him.

In
here somewhere, we meet Vivian (Roberts), a Hollywood hooker who shares
a room with fellow hooker and friend Kit (a cheeky, funny Laura San
Giacomo). Vivian’s annoyed that Kit’s spent up their rent money,
forcing her to go back to the streets; she doesn’t like being a hooker,
but she’s without other options. In a blonde pageboy wig and
traditional Hollywood Hooker garb, she goes back to the Boulevard and
soon meets Edward. He’s looking for directions, not sex, but Vivian
offers to sell him directions and hops into the car.

And
that’s about all the plot there is for most of the movie. Half of the
movie is devoted to the Boy Meets Girl part of the classic equation.
Edward is surprised to find Vivian intelligent, sharp-witted and
imaginative; when they get to his Beverly Hills hotel, instead of
sending her home on the bus, Edward invites her to his room—where they
spend several days. At first it looks like they won’t have sex, but
when Vivian is laughing at an “I Love Lucy” episode (the wine-stomping
show; unbelievably, Vivian says she never saw it before), they finally
get down to the deed, though everything is off screen. However, Vivian
won’t kiss him on the lips; too intimate. A rule set up to soon be
broken.

Most of the movie consists of Gere and Roberts
talking to one another, and this is fine; they’re highly photogenic,
they have instant and strong screen chemistry, and they are great
talkers. Gradually, Edward’s defenses come down, and he grows
increasingly fond of Vivian (who’s way ahead of him in the
falling-in-love race), though he doesn’t quite know what to do about
her. He does give her a wad of money and send her out to buy more
presentable clothes so she can accompany him to a business dinner.

This leads to an interesting scene in which the staff of a ritzy Rodeo
Drive clothing store send Vivian away—she’s just not the kind of
customer they want to attract, or so they think. Back at the hotel,
manager Barney Thompson (Marshall regular Hector Elizondo), who also
quickly identified Vivian as not his kind of customer, quickly becomes
fond of her, even developing a healthy respect for the person she
is—both of these developments much to his surprise and against his
will. Elizondo is superb in the role of this man who learns better.

Eventually, of course, there’s a big problem that arises primarily from
Stuckey’s learning just what Edward’s new companion does for a living,
and from Edward offering to set her up in a hotel as his mistress. But
of course, it all ends happily on that fire escape in Hollywood.

There are some cheerful extras on this DVD, including a brief blooper
reel that consists mostly of Roberts cracking up, which she does with
enthusiasm and a lot of sexy charm. In one brief bit, she submerges
herself under bubbles in a bathtub; everyone else leaves the stage
(with the camera running) before she comes up. The usual sort of
making-of is included, as well as a bit with Natalie Cole performing a
song from the film. There’s a rather long and, unfortunately, tiresome
“Live from the Wrap Party” segment, in which Gere plays the piano like
a champ and Marshall whales away on a set of drums. There’s also a map
of the city with clickable sites used for filming; these are breezily
narrated by Marshall.

Marshall provides the most entertaining extra feature, a commentary
track. He’s one of the great talkers of Hollywood, doesn’t sound at all
like an actor, but like a regular person who happens to know all about
the movie at hand. He tosses in anecdotes, points out locations, and so
forth, the usual sort of director commentary, but it’s more
entertaining and likeable simply because Marshall himself is so
entertaining and likeable.

With all movie stars, you can usually identify the movie in which they
went from whatever they were before to a major star; it’s rarely been
clearer or so easy to identify than the ascent to stardom of Julia
Roberts in this still funny, fresh and likeable comedy.